Blue legs

[marty]

I have a question about blue legged crabs.... Are they reef safe? I bought 4 of them awhile back and they munched down my button polyps that came on the live rock. So therefore, all I have right now is a clown, a damsel, 4 crabs, a couple snails in my 10 gallon tank along with 11 lbs of live rock and 20lbs of ls. I have been waiting to let the tank mature some more before venturing into buying some polyps and mushrooms. Plus I am waiting any way until I figure out if the crabs will be okay to have with them.
Thanks!

 

[carrie1429]

Usually the blue leg hermit crabs don't eat polyps unless maybe they were really hungry. How much other stuff do you have to eat for them.

 

[marty]

There is a ton of algae in the tank that they are working on pretty good. The polyps were not doing very good anyway. Not sure if I was taking care of the polyps right or not, as they seemed to not open at all right before the crabs got them. Plus the crabs have the leftover food I feed the fish. I haven't yet quite figured out the best way to feed 2 fish (its a whole lot easier feeding several fish in my 80 gallon then the 2 in my 10 gallon without over doing it). Right now I have been feeding the fish the slow sinking morsels. I tried the frozen brine (thawed in saltwater of course), but I probably gave too much. Anyway, the crabs probably get some of the leftover food.
Thanks!

 

[carrie1429]

Since the hermits are scavengers they probably ate the polyp because it wasn't doing well. That happend to me too when my poylps were not looking too good. The hermits are just doing their job I guess.

 

[lnarobbins]

imo your polips might have been dead. blue legged hermits are great scavengers and eat the heck out of algea imo keep them maybe add some more
alan